10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Brazilian soccer fan
Marilza Guimaraes da Silva, 63, plays with a ball as she poses
for picture, dressed in one of her many outfits matching the
colors of the Brazil's national flag (green, yellow, white and
blue) at her home in Brasilia May 27, 2014.REUTERS/Joedson Alves

Good morning! Here's what you need to know.

Battle For
Botox. Valeant Pharmaceuticals just
increased the cash portion of its offer to buy out
Botox-maker Allergan. The company is now offering $58.30 in cash
per share, up from a previous offer of $48.30.

REPORT:
Beats Deal On, But Lower. The New York Post's Claire
Atkinson
reportsthe Apple-Beats deal is
definitely on, but that the price is now just $3 billion instead
of the $3.2 billion reported by the FT.

Google Unveils Self-Driving Car. Google
announced it would be building its self-driving cars from
scratch. "It's a little pod that has no steering wheel, and only
goes 25 miles per hour, but it's a step towards a future with
driverless cars,"
BI's Jay Yarow says.

GE In France. GE upped the stakes in its
bid acquire the power division of French conglomerate Alstom,
promising more new jobs and saying it would leave certain
subdivisions in Alstom's control. "Today we can see that
GE's offer has been detailed, improved, strengthened,"
an official in President Francois Hollande's office told
Reuters, adding, however, that there was still "some work to
be done".

Skype Translation. Microsoft
announced it is launching a real-time translation
service through Skype. It sounds amazing. "On stage, an
English-speaking Skype executive, Gurdeep Pall, called
up a German-speaking Skype executive, Diana Heinrichs. They
held a 5-minute conversation. The first executive would say
something in English. Then, after a pause, the a computer voice
would repeat what he said, but in German. Then the German
executive would speak in German. After a pause, the computer
spoke in English."

German Unemployment. The number of
unemployed in Germany unexpectedly surged to 23,937;
forecasts were for a decline of about 15,000. BI's
Joe Weisenthal says it may have been due to weather, but
that it could also further nudge the ECB into lowering rates.

EZ Money Supply. Speaking of
ECB,the Eurozone's M3 money
supply grew less
than 1%, the lowest reading since 2010 — a further sign
of possible deflation.

No Major Econ Data Today. Sorry about that.
However, the not-so-closely-followed
weekly MBA mortgage applications report showed that mortgage
rates, purchase applications, and refinancings all fell last
week.

Markets. Stocks were mostly up around the
world. The yield on Spain's 10-year note fell to a record low
2.827%.

Goldman's World Cup Call. Goldman puts
the odds of Brazil winning at nearly 1:1, mostly thanks to their
talent and home-field advantage.